


The White Way of Delight

by shewhoguards



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Gen, ToT: Trick - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 18:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12538788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewhoguards/pseuds/shewhoguards
Summary: For the prompt: Anne is not the first child the Cuthberts have adopted... but what happened to the others?





	The White Way of Delight

The farm did well, as long as it was kept fed. It didn't ask much, just a strong boy every few years and as long as they took an orphan from out of the area, who would even notice? Orphans were unpredictable; they ran away or ended up getting sent back. If anyone local happened to notice at all it was only to pity the Cuthberts in their difficulty finding reliable help.

But a girl? No. A girl was no use to them at all. After all, there was already Marilla and why would the land ever need more than one female? She had thought that at least was something Matthew had understood, well enough that he had never made the fool's mistake of marrying and bringing another back home and wasn't Marrila relieved that she had never had to face that rivalry? This time though, when she said as much, Matthew looked away and refused to meet her eyes.

"She noticed the trees, Marilla," he said, when pressed. "The White Way of Delight, she called it. And what's more, the trees noticed her. The land noticed her." He took his boots off, setting them down, slow and deliberate. "Seems to me, if the land's made its choice, there's not much we can do about it."

He spoke calmly, as though of the weather rather than an end to the world as they knew it. Marilla did not respond but set her lips in firm denial. This was her land; it would choose what she bid.

It did not take long to engineer an excuse to send the child back; a brooch stolen or a lie about stealing it, what was the difference in the end? The train was swift, the distance she had to travel was far and soon enough an end would be brough to this nonsense. And yet from the moment she sent Matthew to the station there was a feeling of wrongness in the air. The air tasted stale, the cherry tree hung its branches low and when Marilla walked upstairs to try and avoid hearing what the land was telling her so clearly she found the brooch sitting on her shawl where it had certainly not been an hour before. The violet stones sparkled cold accusation of her crimes and she found herself snatching it up and hurrying to call Matthew to speed to the station without delay or no-one might guess what the consequences would be. It was not good to ignore a sign so clearly given.

Even then, a payment had to be made and, as always, it was a male of the house who had to pay it. Marilla was unsurprised when Matthew returned looking battered; it was only a mercy that she had not waited longer to send him. Grimly she greeted Anne, determined not to give even a hint as to how much the girl's presence disturbed her.

The land had chosen a new queen. Whether Marilla liked it or no, a new era had begun.


End file.
